Vista - Really disapointed with HP and impressed with Dell

I'm really frustrated with HP. We bought this Officejet 7140xi because it's
networkable and has a duplexer for double-sided printing. Per HP neither of
these features are available in the basic print driver in Vista. Since Feb
we've been told repeatedly "two weeks more" from their support team for a
full feature driver. Today we're told NOPE, not going to happen. Thanks HP
for keeping us hanging here for the last couple of months only now to say
we're SOL. I've always been a fan of HP printers and even in the last couple
of years bought a bunch of their laptops, but man, this is a new low for HP.

Now to be fair I realize it wasn't their choice to make Vista and it's
expensive to re-write drivers for every printer you've ever made so you have
to draw the line somewhere, but I can't believe a printer that is less than
two years old would be considered obsolete and passed on for full feature
driver development. The only feature this printer doesn't have is Bluetooth
(which who cares about anyway?). I've been using computers since the late
'70s and there are always a few new standards that come along and cause big
changes, but Vista hardly seems like a sea change. Much more of a ripple.
This business stance boggles my mind.

Dell on the otherhand has been incredible. Now, we still don't have all the
drivers, but Dell has been very forthcoming on the development of what
drivers they are working on and when they should be available. You can visit
their site and actually see them punch out the drivers. Not at all cagy like
HP. And the funny thing is Dell doesn't even make their printers, yet they
are developing new drivers for 98% of what they have put in the marketplace.
We have two Dell printers older than our Officejet that are getting shiny
new Vista drivers.

Anyway, I've said my bit. Now off to find a new printer...

I just want to add that today I got a message from Dell that the drivers for
our A960 AIO's are done! Still am amazed at Dell for how great they've been
during this rollout of Vista. Sure we had to wait 3 months to get drivers,
but these printers are 4 years old.

Anybody want an HP 7140xi? Makes a great paperweight. We have two of them.
You could use theme as bookends. Only 18 months old.

HP. I hope somebody at your company is listening to these newsgroups and not
just the personal cell phone records of your employees or board members. You
guys really are sucking with not supporting your products during this
transition and you're loosing a lot of fans.

Hugh



"Hugh G. Johnson" <hughgjohnsonBLAHBLAH@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:OGtmfV7eHHA.3960@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> I'm really frustrated with HP. We bought this Officejet 7140xi because
> it's networkable and has a duplexer for double-sided printing. Per HP
> neither of these features are available in the basic print driver in
> Vista. Since Feb we've been told repeatedly "two weeks more" from their
> support team for a full feature driver. Today we're told NOPE, not going
> to happen. Thanks HP for keeping us hanging here for the last couple of
> months only now to say we're SOL. I've always been a fan of HP printers
> and even in the last couple of years bought a bunch of their laptops, but
> man, this is a new low for HP.
>
> Now to be fair I realize it wasn't their choice to make Vista and it's
> expensive to re-write drivers for every printer you've ever made so you
> have to draw the line somewhere, but I can't believe a printer that is
> less than two years old would be considered obsolete and passed on for
> full feature driver development. The only feature this printer doesn't
> have is Bluetooth (which who cares about anyway?). I've been using
> computers since the late '70s and there are always a few new standards
> that come along and cause big changes, but Vista hardly seems like a sea
> change. Much more of a ripple. This business stance boggles my mind.
>
> Dell on the otherhand has been incredible. Now, we still don't have all
> the drivers, but Dell has been very forthcoming on the development of what
> drivers they are working on and when they should be available. You can
> visit their site and actually see them punch out the drivers. Not at all
> cagy like HP. And the funny thing is Dell doesn't even make their
> printers, yet they are developing new drivers for 98% of what they have
> put in the marketplace. We have two Dell printers older than our Officejet
> that are getting shiny new Vista drivers.
>
> Anyway, I've said my bit. Now off to find a new printer...